Trudeau touts Canadian tech industry at new Microsoft centre in Vancouver

The prime minister is expected to make a major transit funding announcement today in Metro Vancouver.

Microsoft now has 568 employees in Vancouver, and the new Microsoft Canada Excellence Centre will accommodate approximately 750 people.

The prime minister says the funding will be used to help pay for upgrades to existing transit infrastructure, including renovations to aging transit stations and new bus fleets.

“This reminds me of the challenges around the Hong Kong handover, where we saw in Yaletown all these new buildings come up after Expo 86, and then nobody was living in them because they were all bought as investments and insurance around the handover”.

She said it was “a close race” among provinces to procure funding first and that B.C. was the fastest to assemble its wish list of transit projects.

Speaking to CTV Morning Live, Trudeau acknowledged the role offshore money has played in Vancouver’s overheated real estate market, but said it’s only the one piece in a very complex puzzle.

The government made a decision to split the funding into two phases to jump start the projects as quickly as possible, he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $460 million dollars in federal funding over two years for public transportation in B-C – including $370 million dollars for Metro Vancouver.

Clark praised Trudeau for the investment that she said will ensure commuters spend less time on the road and contribute to the province’s goal of fighting climate change.

They insist they want the remainder financed without subjecting the plan to the uncertainty of another referendum, like the one that defeated the proposed regional 0.5 per cent sales tax last summer and continued a years-long impasse over transit expansion.

Robertson said mayors are waiting on the provincial government to approve municipalities’ methods for generating funding for phase two, including potentially raising the carbon tax, property taxes and development fees.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story.

“The federal government in recent decades bailed on most of their housing commitments and it’s good to see the Trudeau government picking up that mantle and rolling out a national housing strategy”, he said.